LETTERS: Maybe you are part of problem

This letter is to the person who moved here to retire and doesn’t like what the valley has become.

I was born and raised here, and through the years I have seen people visit here and decide they want to live here. They move from states where the cost of living was higher than here. What they don’t realize is that by moving here with their big money, they drove up the real-estate prices, and in turn the property taxes followed. People who were born here didn’t have the high wages to fall back on. Some have even been taxed out of their homes. The cost of living has gone up but the wages haven’t.

I have seen changes to this valley that are not good. A lot of the changes and development have been caused by people coming in from out of state. So you may deny that you are not responsible for what has happened to the valley, but you have contributed to the problem. —Pam Neukirch, Kalispell